Marlborough 8, Hudson 1: Panthers find the right remedy

Despite both teams enduring recent losing streaks, when the Marlborough and Hudson boys lacrosse teams squared off on Thursday afternoon they were heading in opposite directions. Entering the game, the Panthers had lost three straight games. Hudson, meanwhile, entered with just one win on the season. Hudson, as it turned out, was the perfect remedy for Marlborough

Despite both teams enduring recent losing streaks, when the Marlborough and Hudson boys lacrosse teams squared off on Thursday afternoon they were heading in opposite directions.

Entering the game, the Panthers had lost three straight games and four of their last five. Hudson, meanwhile, entered with just one win on the season and only scored 37 total goals in those games.

Hudson, as it turned out, was the perfect remedy for Marlborough, which cruised to an 8-1 victory that lifted the Panthers back over .500 with a 6-5 overall record and 4-3 mark in Midland B.

The Hawks fell to 1-10 (1-6 Midland B), and as coach Doug Gold explained, his team is just hoping to get through the rest of the season and build towards next year.

"We’re still in a growth year for us," said Gold. "We lost 13 kids to graduation last year, but I give them credit (because) everyone is still working hard. Another aspect often overlooked is the fact that we don’t have a youth program, so when we play teams that have kids who have multiple years of experience compared to our kids who may have 10 weeks before the season starts, it’s tough to compete with those teams.

"It’s a lot of basic stuff and mental errors right now that’s costing us."

Marlborough’s offense was led by Derek Brodeur and Jake Chaisson, who both had hat tricks. Brandon Erwin and Billy Doherty scored the other goals for the Panthers.

"Our goal today was to come in and stay poised no matter what the score," said Marlborough coach Malcolm Chase. "We’ve had some really slow starts over the past few games during our losing streak and we wanted to get off to a better start today and then make sure, whether we were up or down, that we just kept playing the game with a level head, and I think the guys did a good job of that today."

While Hudson wasn’t able to record so much as a shot in the first quarter, Marlborough took a 2-0 lead after one on goals from Doherty and Chaisson.

Erwin netted his goal in the second quarter while Brodeur potted two of his to give the Panthers a 5-1 lead at halftime. Hudson’s lone goal came with 5:56 to play before the half when Trevor Currin won a face off cleanly, raced down field and ripped a shot top corner.

"This was a big win for us," said Brodeur. "Obviously we’ve been on the losing streak so it was nice to see that Hudson jersey across the field to get us going and to finally walk off the field with a 'W.' "

The third quarter saw just one goal, and it came from Chaisson with 24 seconds left to give the Panthers a 6-1 lead heading into the fourth.

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The final 12 minutes were academic, as Brodeur grabbed his hat trick with 4 minutes to play and Chaisson capped off the scoring with 2:01 left.

"This was huge for us," said Chaisson. "We need to start building a little momentum here in the last month of the season and hopefully today was a good start."